Paul Walker's roles in the Hitman reboot and Nicholas Sparks adaptation have been recast

After Paul Walker’s death, Universal put Fast & Furious 7 on an extended hiatus in order to figure out the delicate situation of retiring the character from the series. But Walker was also committed to a number of other projects, which have now been forced to find other actors in order to move forward. Among the most high profile of these, Homeland’s Rupert Friend will now take on Walker’s role in Agent 47, that previously announced reboot of 2007’s video game adaptation Hitman starring Timothy Olyphant, helmed by commercials director Aleksander Bach. It's a casting that makes sense, given that Friend’s most notable role to American audiences is as a CIA agent with a lot of suppressed rage.

Elsewhere, director Michael Hoffman has offered James Marsden Walker’s role in the Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Best Of Me opposite Michelle Monaghan. The book centers on two high school sweethearts who reunite after 20 years at the funeral of a close friend—a romantic role that would have marked a slightly different direction for Walker, had he lived to play it.